Broken
by ShuxRei
Summary: Originally set to the lyrics of, big surprise, Broken by Seether feat. Amy Lee. Axel wakes up one morning and realizes that Roxas is gone. Strong AkuRoku and Zemyx ties slight unintended AkuDem
1. Awakening

_Disclaimer: I don't own KH or anything affiliated, really. That's for SquareS… oft._

**Warning: Contains some brief adult language and adult themes. Not for children under the age of 16.**

So anyway… I got this idea from a mixture of reading **Suzaka**'s recent fanfictions and just a feeling I've been having for a while—the need to draw and write about my favorite characters in my favorite hobby. :P So this happened. Only going to be a few chapters long. Originally set to the lyrics of Broken by Seether feat. Amy Lee, but lyrics taken out due to copyright purposes. I can show you the original if you would like. Enjoy.

* * *

As he opened his jade eyes, he realized that something was missing. There was no body next to him, no warm-cold flesh to match his own. He couldn't remember how long he had been sleeping, or even what happened before he did . . . he just knew that someone—or something, maybe—wasn't there that should have been. 

"Roxas?" he groaned, his red, mussed hair falling into his face as he raised his head. Silence was his only answer. Slightly disconcerted by the fact that his partner failed to wake him up for a fare well, he slipped on some light underclothes and his black hooded robe, specially issued just for him. He sighed heavily as a knock resounded throughout the room.

"Axel? Hey, are you there?"

Demyx. Of all the times to come be a bother, he had to choose today. Axel really didn't like Demyx; in fact, they almost hated each other. Demyx blamed Axel for the death of Zexion, just as Axel blamed Demyx for . . . well, almost everything else that went wrong. The only reason they even bothered to have contact and tolerate each other was because of Roxas. He was the glue that stuck them with each other, a best friend and boyfriend clashing. Now that Roxas was absent, Axel considered not answering the door. However, there was a slight tinge of some almost-worry in Demyx's nobody voice, and Axel decided that he wanted to find out why that was.

"What do you want, Demyx?" the red-head replied, cracking the door a little to make sure this wasn't another one of Demyx's hate-spells. His eyes were greeted by an agonizingly tortured-looking face, a nobody without even a single sitar to wield against him. Demyx lightly pushed Axel aside and let himself in, pacing back and forth throughout the small, apartment-like room before finding a comfortable seat on the bed from which Axel had just roused himself. He bit his lower lip and clutched his stomach, very visibly trembling.

"Demyx, you're a nobody. Got it memorized?"

"He's gone," the dirty-blonde replied, taking no heed of what was said. He coughed a little, shaking from head to foot, and his aqua eyes focused firmly on the dead center of the floor.

"Demyx . . . ?"

"He's _gone, _Axel! He's gone!" Demyx cried painfully as he gagged on what Axel assumed was a mix of spit and tears that had drained down his throat. He was openly crying, something that a nobody couldn't and shouldn't be capable of, and yet here he was, crying, on Axel's bed. Axel found his way to the edge of the bed and kneeled, looking up at the husk of a person that was, to his knowledge, performing the impossible. He was _feeling_.

"Demyx, what happened to Roxas?" Axel said slowly, as quietly as he thought he should to avoid upsetting the boy more before he could get the information out of him.

"People . . . this morning . . . don't know . . . Xemnas . . . he's gone!" Demyx managed to spit out between sobs, chokes, and whines. It was clear to Axel now that this strategy was going to go nowhere fast. He placed a hand on Demyx's knee as an attempt at some kind of almost-comfort for the somehow real pain Demyx was demonstrating.

"Blubbering fool," flashed through Axel's mind a few times as Demyx took his time calming down enough to speak coherent sentences.

"You're the only one that would understand," Demyx said, still sobbing at intervals but mostly in control. "We both loved him, Axel, and now he's gone."

"Gone where?"

"No one knows. They took him—"

"Who took him, Demyx?"

"Two guys. One in a coat like ours, but not one of us. The other dressed in red." He finally looked into Axel's eyes for the first time, his face twisted in agony. "What are we going to do?"

"That's easy. We're going to find him, and we're going to bring him back," the fire-wielder replied, eyes blazing with anger. "They can't hide him forever."

---

As Demyx lay down and cried himself to sleep on Axel's bed, the latter traveled into the dark realm to look for Number I. "Xemnas!" he yelled, which he knew to be of no point or purpose, seeing as sound gets distorted in the dark realm. It was more out of frustration, anger, and other new sensations he was 'feeling' for the first time. Still, it made him 'feel' better, to yell and scream, to punch and kick at imaginary boundaries.

After a good bout with nothing and an intensely tedious search, Axel found the nobody he was looking for. "Xemnas."

"Number VIII," the white-haired man replied coldly.

"Where's Roxas?"

"Number XIII? Gone."

"Don't bull-shit me, Xemnas," Axel snapped angrily. "You know where he is, and you'd better fucking tell me or—"

"Or what?" Number I interjected, slightly tilting his head in a dominant fashion.

Axel didn't reply.

"Exactly. We are nobodies, Number VIII, all of us. We weren't meant to be, and we weren't meant to be missed. Forget Number XIII." Xemnas eyed his newly-submissive subject up and down with complacency before turning and heading back down towards the hub of The World That Never Was. The flame-haired boy, completely dejected, turned his emerald eyes to the blackened sky.

"Just tell me where to find him . . . " Axel whispered under his breath, as a heavy water droplet fell down his face. He knew Demyx was behind this. It began to rain.

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So yeah. Hope you liked this installment. 


	2. Discovery

_Disclaimer: Go see chap. 1 for Disclaimer._

**Warning: Very little to warn about this chapter. Much angst. Childish name-calling. Suitable for children 9+**

Many thanks to **Suzaka** and Josh (who I think doesn't have a account. shrug) who sat with me and gave me helpful criticism throughout the production of both of the last couple of chapters. As always, this is a continuing work in progress, and I may edit chapters to my liking whenever I feel like it, so constructive criticism is greatly appreciated! Please, though, if you can't criticize _constructively_, then don't criticize at all. Thanks in advance!

Enjoy.

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Axel sat in the rain for a long time, just—thinking. Thinking about what to do, how to go about it, wondering how in the Hell things changed so quickly. He thought about 'feelings' and what they must 'feel' like. He even thought that he might be 'feeling' himself. All kinds of new 'emotions' were swirling inside of him that he couldn't explain. All these things he couldn't understand—he wanted to cry at nothing, or something; he wanted to scream, to kick and punch someone; he wanted to rip his chest apart to search for the heart that wasn't there. Most of all, he wanted this painful emptiness to end, and he knew he could do it just by bringing Roxas back. Without knowing it, Axel had interwoven in his mind the idea of finding his heart with Roxas. He represented the hope that Axel couldn't feel alone, and without him, there was nothing.

Falling to his knees, he stared up into the clouded, dripping sky and felt his eyes become flooded with tears that he couldn't understand, control, or hold back. He conjured a chakram just to throw it across the road at a wall and have it burst into flames. His hair, normally so well-styled and spiked, fell limply on his face and neck, completely soaked, as he pounded his fists into the street cement until his hands bled. And he cried.

--

"Demyx."

The boy sat up quickly from his lounging position on the bed. He held his sitar in his lap, and his calloused fingers were red, a few even bleeding. His normally cool aqua eyes were flushed and swollen, and he constantly brought his hand up to rub them, looking to Axel sadly but with hope. Axel shook his head. The boy's head drooped.

"I have an idea," Axel mumbled, and before the words even left his lips, Demyx was on his feet with eyes wider and brighter than Axel had seen all morning, sitar laying peacefully in Roxas' favorite spot on the bed. There continued a short silence.

"Well?" the blonde asked, after waiting a considerable 15 seconds for Axel to unveil his master plan. Demyx was never really that patient, and this was probably the worst time Axel could have picked to delay revealing his thoughts. Axel, being more of a plotting type, slightly glared under his eyebrows at the ignorance of Demyx's haste and made him wait a few seconds longer out of spite before continuing.

"Well, Roxas hasn't known anything other than the Organization, right?"

"Okay . . . " Demyx said, fidgeting a little with the drawstring on his official Organization jacket.

Axel looked away, seeming to inspect the blank grey-coloured wall to avoid having to look the distraught Demyx in the eye. "So he would be trying to find us, but he's not."

"How do you know?" Demyx questioned, honestly perplexed.

"Xemnas." Axel replied flatly. "He told me to forget Roxas, which means he knows that Roxas isn't coming back."

"Okay," the boy said, his unnaturally strange mullet-mohawk hairstyle shifting as he ran his hand through it nervously, "so what's your idea?"

"You haven't figured it out yet? . . . You're such an idiot sometimes," Axel threw in, with a tinge of hostility, still holding on to the age-old aggression between them. Demyx huffed slightly, but remained quiet out of curiosity. "Who is the one person that could withhold him from us, not only physically, but in all other forms?"

Axel watched Demyx for a while as the blonde's face went from deep thought to understanding. The flamethrower nodded as they both spoke her name.

"Naminé."

--

In another world, all alone, a girl sat on a white chair in an all-white room wearing a clean, white dress, drawing like a madwoman in a blank sketchbook. The floor and walls were littered with quickly and childishly drawn sketches, but for all of their simplicity, they were still easily recognizable almost to the point of photographs. Her deep blue eyes skimmed quickly over her chalk sitting by her side before she picked up another pale-yellow piece and began illustrating again. This was her gift, and no one understood why it had come to be, except that through these etchings she was the most powerful Nobody that ever was. Without moving, she began to speak while she continued flailing her hand about the page rhythmically.

"Hello, Axel. Demyx. It's nice to see you two again."

"Naminé," Demyx began civilly, "It's been a while."

"Let's cut to the chase," Axel interrupted, getting ever-so-slightly impatient with the whole situation, "Roxas is gone. You know where he is, don't you?"

Naminé looked up from her pad, almost-surprised at the ferocious anger and irritation in Axel's words. She looked at them sadly, and then turned to Axel. "You've always been so irritable, Axel."

"Nobodies can't be irritable. We can't _feel_!" Axel nearly shouted back.

"It's in your element." Naminé said without blinking, and the two boys could see that she was smiling behind the wave of blonde hair that her face was hidden behind. She took the page she was working on out of her book and placed it lightly on her lap, upside-down so that the two could not see the picture on the other side. Placing her sketchpad aside for the moment, she looked up with the same desolate smile as her hair fell to the right side of her pale face, as it always did. "You two know I can't help you," she commented.

"Isn't there anything you can do, Naminé?" Demyx tried, while Axel looked to the side with his arms crossed, pretending to be interested in the pictures around the room and failing at hiding his hurt pride.

Naminé took the picture from her lap into her gentle hands, looking as fragile as ever as she stood up to leave. "They are coming for me next," she stated solemnly and bluntly. "They know they can't force me to do any more while the Organization is watching me, so they are taking me to his world." She looked straight at Axel, who turned his head back from wall-gazing and got lost in her ocean-blue eyes. She held the picture out to him, and he took it respectfully without looking. He understood, and so did Demyx. As she opened the door, she turned one last time to say "I am sorry."

After she was gone, they both looked down at the coloured sketch. It depicted a blonde boy in light clothes with a keyblade, standing in a vast, sandy-looking area, surrounded by short and squat buildings. In the background, there was a giant clock tower and a train plaza on a hill. The two looked at each other, slightly grinning at the triumph.

Vexen, the old fool, was good for something after all. It was Twilight Town.

* * *

**More notes:** I tried to make this as reader-friendly as possible (meaning that even if you haven't played the games, it might still make sense), but it will make a whole lot MORE sense if you have played the games, so sorry if I overplay some parts to the people that already know what I'm talking about.

As stated before, please feel free to give constructive criticism! I really do appreciate it because I _know_ I'm a fledgling writer that has a lot to learn. So don't be shy!

Exes and ohs!


	3. History

_Disclaimer: See chap. 1_

**Warning: Brief adult language and mild violence. Not for children under 16.**

Author's Response Corner (where I address the reviews I've received since the last time I updated a particular story):

**Suzaka**: Silly darling child. Thank you so much! And I just wanted you to know that I absolutely adore your similes/metaphors/comparisons. They make me giggle. I tried to throw one in reminiscent of yours to see if you could find it. :P

Many thanks again to my main beta reader, Josh. I appreciate your patience, love.

Enjoy this installment.

_

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_"Twilight Town," Demyx said, to break the unnerving silence of the dark realm. "I would have never guessed." 

"That's why you would have never found him without me," Axel replied coldly. He was actually becoming quite irate at the fact that Demyx kept following him like a lost puppy in need of breast-feeding. Without Roxas there to calm the tempest, Axel had started to manifest a great hatred towards Demyx. Everything Demyx said, or what he _didn't_ say, just made it seem to Axel that there were no other options but death.

Demyx, who was much better now about not 'feeling' (as a Nobody should), was still getting just as livid towards Axel on the inside. This murderer, this thing that stole Zexion away, was insulting him; so why wasn't he holding his ground? Demyx blamed Axel for this loss of caring. They viewed each other as parasites that couldn't be discarded—it was a symbiotic relationship on the edge. So they wandered their way through the dark realm mostly in silence, shattered only by the sound of Demyx gently humming.

"Wait here," Axel mandated to Demyx as he opened a portal into a strange room reminiscent of a dining room. There was a low table, a couple of chairs, and that was about it. Axel inspected the room and peeked out to check for hidden enemies, and as he turned back towards the portal, Demyx was standing there, so close that Axel's lips brushed Demyx's nose for a moment before he jumped back.

"You sick fuck, you couldn't wait thirty seconds?" Axel shouted, aghast.

"No." Demyx replied with a twisted smile, almost cheerful at the startled expression on Axel's face. "I'm not helpless."

"I'm the better fighter, Demyx. Got it memorized?"

"You know, that gets old," the blonde said, bringing his hands up behind his head to rest on the nape of his neck in a relaxed position, "That whole 'memorized' thing. It's annoying."

"Shut up and deal with it, ass." Axel snapped back. "You would have been dead if the Heartless showed up."

Summoning his sitar, Demyx held it pointed straight at Axel, a very silly threat in any other circumstances. "Try me. I'll kick your ass here and now."

Axel rolled his eyes and turned to leave before being thrust into the air by a painfully powerful water blast from the ground. Demyx waltzed over to where the red-headed fire-starter now lay on the ground, groaning. "You're supposed to accept or decline. It's only fair," he sang as he lightly poked Axel in the nose.

Jumping to his feet, Axel now had both chakram ready to systematically destroy this pest that nearly broke his ribs. He summoned a wall of fire at the doorway though which Demyx was currently trying to depart, nearly singing the ends of the mullet half of the boy's bizarre hairstyle. The blonde looked at him curiously through his aqua eyes. "You know we don't have time for these silly games, Axel."

Axel ground his teeth and scowled before throwing his weapons hard enough to break the table in two and flailing his hands above his head. "Yeah," he remarked, "because the whole damn world conforms to _your_ fickle will, Demyx."

"Whatever, hothead," Demyx replied gleefully, knowing that this particular crack at Axel's element would send him sky high, "and while _you_ throw your childish little temper-tantrum, _I'm_ going to go find Roxas."

As Demyx sauntered out through the newly and thoroughly quenched doorway, completely pleased with himself, Axel squatted to catch his breath and keep himself from absolutely tearing that idiot floodgate apart limb-by-limb. The only reason he even attempted to restrain himself, of course, was that even though Roxas was not present, Axel knew that he wouldn't appreciate being given a box containing his best friend in eight identical, cauterized pieces. He sighed and rose, smacking his fist into the nearby wall out of frustration and wincing at the pain. Taking off his glove, he saw that his hand had started bleeding again. "Damnit," he whispered under his breath before sliding the glove back on his damaged hand and reluctantly following Demyx's lead. It was going to be a very long day.

--

In another room, Naminé was diligently, although reluctantly, working on her newest assignment.

--

"Now what, Tone-deaf?" Axel asked as he grinned maliciously at the person leading him, who looked confusedly from one side to another through a seemingly endless expanse of trees. The redhead was absolutely ecstatic at his partner's shortcomings, as he always was with Demyx. Not surprisingly, Demyx had begun humming again, although it was a slightly more legato tune and sounded almost-scared. He put his hand up to indicate his need for silence.

"Oh, real mature. Just because you're a Nobody doesn't mean—"

"This way!" Demyx triumphantly belted as he pointed in the direction from which they had just come.

"You idiot! You're running us in circles!" the other shouted before noticing a Dusk scuttling through the trees. The two hid behind a bush between two saplings as the Dusk quickly passed them and headed towards the mansion they had recently exited.

"Let's follow it!" Demyx said, quickly and quietly chasing the creature without waiting for a response from his red-haired companion, who followed anyway out of confusion and curiosity. The Dusk was carrying what looked like pictures of some kind. It stopped in front of the mansion's gates as Axel stepped out of hiding into the small meadow between the gate and the edge of the forest menacingly, hood fully hiding all remnants of facial features.

"Dusk." he said as he snapped his fingers. The Dusk turned its Nobody head to face Axel, swaying back and forth to its own rhythm. Axel approached his inferior with malcontent and took the contents of its hands before dismissing it. As the Dusk faded into darkness, Axel threw his hood back with his head, and Demyx came meandered out from behind a nearby tree.

"What is it?" Demyx inquired of the now thoroughly agitated Axel, who was flicking through the items as quickly as seemed possible. The blonde stepped up on his toes and peered over the slightly taller boy's shoulder to see the photographs that the latter continued to abuse. The pictures were all different, but they had a definite connection—the contents were the same. Axel was getting more and more flushed as his anger rose to the surface while Demyx turned away and faced the wood, pondering. After what seemed like much inner turmoil, Axel spun around to face the back of Demyx's head and asked the question on both of their minds.

"What the _fuck_ does an uncharted Dusk want with fake pictures of Roxas?!"

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**More notes: **So this was a very hard chapter for me to get through. I'm still not entirely satisfied with it, so I may go back and edit it later, but for the moment, I feel that it's the best I could do. Oh well. I'll work on it.

Constructive criticism strongly encouraged. :


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